POWERon: Diving Under The Influence [Webcomic]

May 15, 2012Written by Dan Oravasaari

It’s time for another edition of POWERon, the PSLS-only webcomic. With Max Payne out in North America, we take a look at how the world’s most blatantly named gunfighter finds life once he’s defeated all his enemies.

– Dan O

Much like the repetition that comes with franchises like COD, there seems to be a continual focus on producing franchises new and old. Now I cannot say whether the rebooting of franchises is necessarily a bad thing, as there are a number of titles out there that I would love to see be updated. Strider or Blaster Master, are prime examples of games that I would love to see return in 2D form. Sadly the return of Max Payne does not really excite me that much. The one thing that separated Max Payne from other shooters was its bullet time aspect, a feature that since then, has become over used and mundane. So it is not enough to simply bring back a beloved franchise. You must be able to recreate something that people loved, and add a modern concept without losing the game’s roots. Something that I believe is rarely done correctly.

– Seb M:

New Max Payne might not be much like old Max Payne, but I don’t care because it’s made by Rockstar, and they’re one of my favorite developers. But generally, I don’t want to see old games get revamped, it’s rarely done right and just ruins my memory of the game – the less said about Bomberman: Act Zero the better.

Just as Max Payne shouldn’t drink and dive, developers shouldn’t rehash old stuff. Try something new, be different, make a game that in 20 years people will look back at and say “oh man, remember ___? They don’t make games like that any more”.